The Influence of Organization’s Communication Network Structure on Knowledge Integration in CFT

The Case of Chinese Mobile Applications Enterprise

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between communication and knowledge integration in the context of cross-functional teams. Although communication is one of the most important processes for integrating the knowledge in cross-functional teams, little research has been discussed the relationship between communication and knowledge integration. In our empirical research, we found that not only communication time between team members influences knowledge integration in cross-functional teams; instead, enterprise’s communication network also influences knowledge integration of cross-functional teams. The result shows the possibility that the communication network at higher levels of organization units (enterprises) may influence the knowledge integration at lower levels of organization units (cross-functional teams).